Social Scam: Soldiers targeted by scammers

Thursday

Jan 9, 2014 at 12:01 AMJan 9, 2014 at 1:13 PM

By Tom McCollum Fort Bragg Garison PAO

We’ve written about scams aimed at Soldiers many times. To most it shouldn’t come as a surprise that people looking for love on the Internet are not always who they say they are, to include age and their gender. We thought the Virginiabased car dealer who gave Soldiers free rides to their dealership only to abandon them there if they didn’t buy a car was pretty low. And of course, there’s everyone’s good friend in Nigeria who is holding millions of dollars for you but needs a few hundred dollars to get the windfall to you.

All of these, and many more, pale in comparison to what we found on Craig’s List earlier this week. We were alerted to what may be the all time most heartless, though creative, scam yet — someone selling positive pregnancy test results in order to scam a Servicemember into marrying them.

The Craig’s List scammer, who supposedly lives on Fort Bragg, says the positive test results can be used to trick boyfriends into marring them. I guess the seller’s assumption is that a quick wedding will follow. Afterwards, the scammer can fake a miscarriage to explain why the baby never showed up. To cap it off, the seller says she needs the money to buy baby items for her baby. We couldn’t make this up.

Okay, if I were the seller’s husband, I would begin to wonder just whose baby she was carrying.

Just how low could a person be to use another woman’s pregnancy test to trick a guy into marrying her? That is not exactly a solid foundation for a marriage and one that is probably in the fast-lane headed to a divorce.

I guess the beauty of this scam from the seller and buyer’s point of view, is that the temporarily, psudo pregnant wife would get military benefits after the divorce. Sorry ladies, and in this case I use that word loosely, that is not the case.

To the guys, make sure you are with the right woman and not the woman-right-now to be intimate with, but many before have received the same advice, and it’s still ignored. Also, get a paternity test if you find yourself in this situation.

To the scammers, two things: this scam may not be all you think it is. What you may be entitled to is mostly dependent on state laws and the length or service, marriage and overlap of the two for determining benefits.

Secondly, what you buy may not be what was promised. As they say in Latin, “Caveat emptor.” In case you don’t know

Latin, that means, “Let the buyer beware.” If the test does not work, who are you going to complain to? The Better Business Bureau or the police? Doubtful.

And finally to the Craig’s List scammer, we made the command aware of this posting and someone should be knocking on your door soon. If you should find yourself living off Fort Bragg and possibly without a job and in need of money, I know this guy in Nigeria who